AFP, funded in part by the billionaire Koch brothers, has bought an ad buy of nearly $1 million in Denver and Colorado Springs over the next three weeks. The group also is funding ads in other states where Democratic seats are up for grabs.

That didn’t take long: the conservative Americans for Prosperity has bought nearly $850,000 in air time in Colorado Springs and Denver, as it prepares to launch a three-week blitz on Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Udall beginning Monday.

After Congressman Cory Gardner, a rising star in the Republican Party, jumped into the race, it was obvious that both sides would spend millions to prevail in November.

Americans for Prosperity this week launched a $700,000 ad campaign targeting Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor for his support of the Affordable Care Act, the Wall Street Journal reported.

AFP is funded by Charles and David Koch, two billionaire brothers who have used their oil wealth to hammer Democratic candidates and their ties to President Barack Obama. Democrats now are fighting back against the Koch brothers, saying the brothers have grown stupendously wealthy while pushing an agenda that tries to privatize Social Security, reduce taxes on oil and undermine environmental regulations.

State Rep. Amy Stephens on Tuesday avoided casting a definitive vote in support of her 2011 bill that set up Colorado’s health insurance exchanges — a measure that’s put the Republican at odds with some in her own party as she runs for U.S. Senate.

Lawmakers on the House Public Health Care & Human Services committee heard testimony on a GOP-sponsored bill looking to repeal Stephens’ measure that set up the state-run health insurance exchange, which is a key pillar under President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

Stephens, who sits on the committee, defended the state exchanges during testimony, saying her sponsorship of the bipartisan 2011 bill was the best move for Colorado.

The Monument Republican left Tuesday’s hearing early and said she had “prior approval.” Rep. Dianne Primavera, D-Broomfield, told The Post lawmakers on the committee Tuesday would not cast a final vote on the repeal measure because a full committee was not present due to Stephens leaving early. The vote is expected at a later date and the measure will likely be rejected by the Democrat-controlled committee.

The battle to emerge as the Tea Party favorite in a crowded U.S. Senate field arrived this week with an endorsement from a national organization.

Lauding state Sen. Owen Hill as a “new candidate for the U.S. Senate” and someone who “understands what it takes to get Americans back to work and on the road to prosperity, not simply creating more dependence,” the Tea Party Express threw its support behind the first-term state lawmaker.

The endorsement of Hill by the Tea Party Express comes four years after the group backed Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck. Buck, the party’s 2010, is running again this year and has visited with several local Tea Party groups across the state in an effort to revive a base that propelled him to the nomination four years ago.

And Buck’s campaign stresses the support of the Tea Party still remains.

“Ken has visited multiple tea party meetings all over the state and is sincerely listening to their concerns. The Express group is but one out-of-state faction that doesn’t represent the full grassroots movement going on here in Colorado,” said Melanie Harmon, Buck’s communications director.

Hill and Buck are among a field of Republicans vying for the GOP nomination, which includes state Rep. Amy Stephens and state Sen. Randy Baumgardner. Both Hill and Buck have raised the most money in the field of challengers vying to unseat Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Udall.

A director with Colorado’s health-care exchange was placed on paid administrative leave Tuesday after it was discovered she has been accused of stealing from a nonprofit housing organization she oversaw in Montana.

Christa McClure, 51 is the director of partner engagement for Connect for Health Colorado, the state program that implements the Affordable Care Act in the state.

In her Colorado job, McClure does not have access to any of exchange’s finances, spokesman Ben Davis said. He said the charges against her are “very serious and we are taking this very seriously.”

The eight-count indictment against McClure was filed in U.S. District Court in Billings, Mont., in January. McClure pleaded not guilty Feb. 6 and was released pending trial, according to the Billings Gazette.

The 12-page indictment alleges that while serving as executive director of the federally funded Housing Montana, McClure between 2008 and 2010 paid herself “significant sums” for consulting services although she was already on the payroll as a full-time employee. She also made payments to her family and used federal money for personal travel, the indictment alleges. She also is accused of charging homeowners for a $750 warranty that did not exist, converting a laptop for personal use, inflating the hours she was to be compensated for and writing herself a $21,000 check.

Nearly a dozen Republicans are running for Colorado governor or the U.S. Senate and the two races collided over the weekend when state Sen. Greg Brophy was asked about the local version of Obamacare, known as “Amycare.”

Additional answers are needed as to how many cancellation notices were doled out to Coloradans with the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, say Colorado Senate Republicans.

In a letter to Division of Insurance Commissioner Marguerite Salazar, the caucus on Wednesday called on the commissioner to offer an update on the number of individual policy cancellations that have occurred under Obamacare and a breakdown of policy cancellations by county. Moreover, the letter, signed by all 17 Senate Republicans, calls on the division of insurance to highlight the price difference between old policies and policy replacements.

This comes as Republicans look to keep the issue of policy cancellations at the forefront with voters slowly beginning to tune into the midterm elections.

Earlier this month, e-mails from within the division of insurance revealed a director believed U.S. Democratic Sen. Mark Udall’s office was unjustly trashing their figure that 250,000 cancellations had occurred back in November. Udall’s office contended that because 96 percent of those so-called cancellations received renewal notices, it was misleading to call them cancellations.

Senate Republicans on Monday peppered Division of Insurance Commissioner Marguerite Salazar with questions about the tussle her office had with U.S. Sen. Mark Udall’s staffers in regard to the number of insurance policies cancelled due to the Affordable Care Act.

“Were you concerned as the head of this division that a U.S. Senator was pressuring your office to change numbers that your experienced, credible employee had said were accurate numbers?” asked state Sen. David Balmer, R-Centennial, who sits on the Business, Labor & Technology committee overseeing Salazar’s confirmation hearing.

“I characterize this really as a heated discussion between two staff members. That happens all the time. There was a difference in how we were defining these numbers,” Salazar responded.

Republicans vying to unseat U.S. Sen. Mark Udall in November pounced on news reports Thursday that a director of the state’s Division of Insurance felt intimidated after the senior senator’s staff pushed back against claims that 250,000 Coloradans had insurance policies canceled because of the Affordable Care Act.

“Sen. Udall says our numbers were wrong. They are not wrong. Cancellation notices affected 249,199 people. They (Udall’s staff) want to trash our numbers. I’m holding strong while we get more details. Many have already done early renewals. Regardless, they received cancellation notices,” Donlin wrote in a November e-mail to co-workers.

That figure has been openly challenged by Udall. Moreover, Udall called it misleading since most of those “cancellations” allowed individuals to renew their health insurance plans.

“It is clear that Senator Udall tried to use his official office to advance his political interests by pressuring state officials to change facts that he realizes are extremely damaging for his flailing re-election campaign,” said Stephens, who is one of seven candidates in a GOP primary for Senate.

Tim Griesmer, campaign manager for Weld County Republican District Attorney Ken Buck, who is also running for Senate, said Udall promised Coloradans could keep their health plan if they liked it, noting a 2009 interview Udall gave to a local TV station.

“That turned out to not be true. Now we learn that his staff tried to pressure the Colorado Division of Insurance to change the number of people who had their health plan cancelled,” Griesmer said.

Weld County DA Ken Buck.

On Thursday, Udall defended his staff in an interview with The Post, saying in part that it was “really important to correct the record.”

“I put my team to work to find out whether those numbers would stand up to scrutiny,” Udall told The Post. He added: “I’m going to be there every day insuring that every Coloradan who wants health insurance gets health insurance.”

A campaign spokesman for Udall declined to comment for this post, referring all inquiries to senator’s comments.

It’s an award U.S. Sen. Mark Udall will likely not accept with open arms as he heads into a re-election year.

Sen. Mark Udall at a rally for President Obama in 2012. (The Post)

The Republican National Committee doled out the “Lie Of The Year” award to the Democrat — as well as several other Democrats up for re-election in 2014 — on Wednesday for telling constituents they can keep their same health care policies under President Barack Obama’s health care law.

Well, that was not the case, which, since the roll out of the Affordable Care Act Oct. 1, has been widely reported.

And recently PolitiFact coined Obama’s words — often echoed by the president on the campaign trail and in the months leading up to the roll out — as the political lie of 2013.

From PolitiFact:

This fall, as cancellation letters were going out to approximately 4 million Americans, the public realized Obama’s breezy assurances were wrong.

Boiling down the complicated health care law to a soundbite proved treacherous, even for its promoter-in-chief. Obama and his team made matters worse, suggesting they had been misunderstood all along. The stunning political uproar led to this: a rare presidential apology.

For all of these reasons, PolitiFact has named “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it,” the Lie of the Year for 2013.

Those words have also been echoed by Udall.

In a 2009 interview with Colorado Springs’ FOX 21, Udall said in regard to the president’s health care reform efforts, “If you have an insurance policy you like, doctor or medical facility that provides medical services to you, you’ll be able to keep that doctor or that insurance policy.”

Thousands of Coloradans enrolled in individual insurance marketplaces would have their current health care policies cancelled next year due to the Affordable Care Act. A one year extension has been implemented for those individuals.

Lynn Bartels thinks politics is like sports but without the big salaries and protective cups. The Washington Post's "The Fix" blog has named her one of Colorado's best political reporters and tweeters.

Joey Bunch has been a reporter for 28 years, including the last 12 at The Denver Post. For various newspapers he has covered the environment, water issues, politics, civil rights, sports and the casino industry.